COVINGTON, Ky. – Call it an urban episode of the TV series “Outback Truckers.”

 

Three 117-foot-long trucks will thread their way through the streets of downtown Covington on Tuesday morning, delivering three 96,000-lb. concrete beams for a new pedestrian bridge being erected over the railroad tracks at 11^th Street.

 

The delivery will impact parking and traffic: Parking will be prohibited near intersections along the route, as marked with signs, and the slow maneuvering of the massive trucks will temporarily affect local traffic.

 

The 9-axle trucks – owned by Prestress Transportation LLC – are scheduled to leave Lexington at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and arrive in Covington between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., although gridlock on Interstate 75 caused by maintenance work on the Brent Spence Bridge into Ohio could delay that arrival.

 

The trucks will arrive in Covington at the 12^th Street exit, head north on Simon Kenton Way, east on Pike Street, east on West Seventh, south on Scott Street, west on West 10^th Street and north on Washington Street, where a crane will unload them.

 

The second and third trucks will “stage” on Simon Kenton Way and be released on a schedule that gives the drivers time to maneuver the route.

 

The trucks will be accompany by escort vehicles and “scouts.”

 

Cars that ignore the no-parking signs will be towed. The signs will be removed after the last truck passes.

 

The beams themselves are 90-feet, 3-inches long.

 

The new 12-foot-wide pedestrian bridge over the CSX tracks is part of a $777,000 project designed, funded, and managed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. It consists of replacing a pedestrian bridge at the same location and the permanent removal of a vehicular bridge that had been closed since 2013 because of rust and crumbling concrete.

 

Work began in March and is being done by Louisville Paving and Construction.

 

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